The early images were silver images and from time to time since then they
have been used on tombstones. They don't last. Real photoceramics,
preferably of the photo-enamel type (on steel plates), won't crack nor fade
for hundreds of years if they are properly made. The famous Cimetière Père
Lachaise in Paris (13th arrondissement) is a good place where one can see
lots of photoceramics. It's interesting to note that the well known bones
that are sleeping there (Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison of The Doors, Oscar
Wilde, etc.) never had photoceramics put on their tombstones because they
would have been ripped off in no time at all. To this day, from the moment
the gates open in the morning they have to assign guards next to Morrison's
grave to make sure souvenir seekers don't chisel away part of the stone. In
fact, plenty of lesser known tombstones have nothing but empty holes left
where there was once a photoceramic.
The one facing page 52 of my Encyclopedia, of Théodore Rousseau (a minor
French painter) was probably stolen from a tombstone at one point. The
lower left part of the image shows distinct marks left by a chisel. It was
purchased legally at an auction in Paris (Drouot) in the early 1980s. Or so
I was told;-)
It is strange to note that from a conservation point of view, photoceramics
may disappear completely before they have had a chance to fade;-)
Luis Nadeau
NADEAUL@NBNET.NB.CA
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/nadeaul/